Another
group of mainly Grassington adventurers took Black Rigg Mine. in
Simpsonís Pasture on
Galloways.
They were George Bradley, George Fletcher, George Morley, William
Morley, William Bayne, Michael Houseman and John Maxfield. Their 21
year
lease ran from January 1783. but it was extended in 1793 and eventually
expired at Michaclmas 1814. 64 A list of the partners made by the
mineral lordís agent around 1813 is an indication of how inaccurate
such information might be. On that list, Jacob Bailey and George
Gouthwaite had replaced George Fletcher, John Maxfield and William
Morley, hut Bailey and Bradley died in 1794 and 1799 respectively.
Fletcher died in 1791 and his share went to his daughter. Elizabeth.
Bradley, the Grassington Barmaster, was father-in-law to Fletcher, the
curate of Linton, and uncle to Bailey, a mining agent.

On
November 15th 1792, Maxfield sold his 1/16th share to George West, a miner
of Coldstonefold, for £70 to be paid over ten years at seven pounds per
year. Bayne, an innkeeper from Pateley Bridge, was a member of the
Ehenezer Lodge of the Freemasons in that town.65

The
lease stipulated that the company was to employ a sufficient number of
miners, giving preference to Taylor Whiteís tenants, and they were to he
paid at Pateley Bridge or on Greenhow twice a year on November 22nd and
May 12th, or within 21 days thereof. The company also undertook to sink
two new shafts on the line of Blue Rigg Vein and to drive a crosscut north
to the boundary of their ground within 18 months or pay a penalty of £500.

From
its name, one of the new shafts was probably Covenant Shaft. The other was
East Shaft, which was 21 fathoms deep by September 1805, when sinking was
resumed. The north crosscut began a little west of Deep Shaft.

The
workings between Woodhouse and Engine Shafts followed the vein down into
the limestone and found it disrupted by a gulf near the latter shaft. Deep
Shaft was sunk onto a north string and, in 1811, a new shaft was being
sunk on a south string to the west of Woodhouse Shaft. Production figures are
only
available for the mineís last 18 years. when it produced nothing in
1803, 1810 and 1812-13. In the other 14 years, output averaged 28 tons per
year.

The
mine stood until the late 1830s, when the eastern end of Blue Rigg Vein
was sought by the South Level from Cockhill Level. A vein, thought to he
Blue Riggs, was found in 1839. The trial was given up, however, despite
finding some encouraging samples of ore, and it is likely that, at adit
level, the vein runs out of the limestone and into shale as it goes west.

At
a later date, the Sunside Company drove a crosscut, called the Blue Rigg
Low Level, south from Moss Vein. It began at adit level, but after 220
yards it was continued to Blue Rigg Vein at a higher horizon. Other than
its failure to find new veins between Moss and Blue Rigg Veins, it is not
known what, if any, success this trial had.